Horse Guards

Today Mo and I slept in a bit (half hour) and walked to the Horse Guards to see their Guard Change ceremony (VERY close to our hostel, turns out). As I said before, we had no desire for the Royal Guard Change, but the horse guards, yes!

We got there about 45 minutes early and noticed the horses on the other side were out more and decided to take a picture together with the horse. The horse was so friendly! It nuzzled me and her. She has a picture of the horse's nose in her hand. It was so nice. The other one we just took pictures of. Then we went out and positioned ourselves in two different spots to get the maximum picture angles we could. It was pretty neat. A gray horse came out with a guy with a bugle and trotted out and towards the Palace. Then a few minutes later 6 horses came out and lined themselves up facing me!! It was a few more minutes and the guy on the gray horse came back and lined up with them. I took a ton of pictures of them facing me. A few minutes after that their leader came out and positioned himself facing me in front of them. Even a bit more, the horses from the palace barracks came (12 of them?) and came into the "arena" and lined up with their backs to me. It was pretty neat. Then the leader had 6 of them step out. The guy with the flag from the group that came from the palace switched flags to another horse in the group (right in front of me) and then those 6 horses left and went back into the stables that were there. The neat thing about looking at the guards from the palace and from where we were is their tops were different colors. The ones from the palace were black and the others were red. The two leaders of the groups went into the middle and were talking. I have a funny suspicion it was like "what'd you think of the rain yesterday?" "How's the family?" Stuff like that. They basically just stood there for at least a half hour and the 6 that went back into the stables came out in the red colored tops and then that new group (now 12 or 13 in red) walked off towards the palace. The ones that were left went back into the stables. I'm sure 2 went out front to stand "guard" and the others went back to the stables (horses that is). The people probably were still there.

Mo and I decided to follow behind the group that was heading towards the palace. I wanted a picture of them walking along, but closer up so I ended up running most of that road to catch up with them. It was ridiculous with my daypack on my back and in completely terrible shoes to run in. I did catch up with them, though! I got some pretty nice pictures. They went around the Queen Victoria Monument (went in front of the palace) and walked down the road to the barraks there.

I heard a band playing and Mo was at the front gates, so I went to see that they had a band going in the Royal Guard uniform. I took some "point-and-shoot" photos and went to the front gates where I ended up calling Mo and finding out she was at the monument next to a bay horse. I got waylaid, though, as the police horses were SO BEAUTIFUL! I had to stop and take pictures of this beautiful gray dapple (my fav). She took pictures of the horse she was near. Anyway, to say the least, Mo and I were loving the horses.

We eventually walked to Green Park station and caught the tube to Kings Cross St Pancras so I could take a picture at platform 9 3/4. We had a picture together and then we got back on the tube and headed back to the hostel where Mo offloaded her pictures onto her computer and I slept for a half hour while she read for about an hour.

It was 4pm and Mo got her stuff and we left the hostel. It was POURING when she left. We would have been soaked if it weren't for a few awnings and eventually I got my umbrella out to walk back. She left on the tube and I went back to the hostel and just hung out for about 45 minutes. I attempted to see how my packing situation for tomorrow was going to turn out. I think I can get home without two checked bags. My carry-on might be a bit stuffed (I'm coming home with 4 new books and all my other stuff) and I may have to wear my vest and sweatshirt home (or stuff the vest into the carry-on), but I'm pretty sure I can do it.

Right now I'm in the internet cafe again and it's actually very sunny outside. I was kind of surprised. It's blue skies and some puffy clouds (moving fast, though). So I hope it stays nice through tomorrow until I take off at least.

I plan to have dinner at the Rainforest cafe (my splurge and a way to get rid of the rest of my cash) and then either come back to the internet cafe or go back to the hostel or an hour and then head to the theater to see if I can get autographs of the other actors in the play. Somehow we missed Paul Hilton who plays (for all intents and purposes) the main character in the play. He did a fantastic job and I wouldn't mind having the other actors also. So we'll see if I can do that. I'm going to try and go earlier than yesterday so I can be in front. If I get Orlando's again, fine, but I don't need it. I think 2 on my program and 3 on the flyers is good enough. :P I'll probably take pics more than try for an autograph. I want a pic of his dog, which is absolutely cute - a chocolate, medium sized, short haired dog.

After that, I plan to come back and go to sleep. I have to get up at 9 am tomorrow so I can check out of the hostel by 10am and then I'm catching the tube down the road from my hostel (seriously, 3 minutes) and heading to Heathrow. I'm hoping they'll let me check in 4 hours early. It'll be so nice to be rid of my travel packback and just have my carry-on! I can re-read parts of Deathly Hallows, which is what I've been doing lately.

Well, I should go. I'll be home tomorrow late evening! I can't explain how nice it'll feel to be in my own bed (the beds haven't been bad here), my OWN bathroom (no sharing!), and not have to worry about all my stuff! I'm just glad I took Saturday off from work. There is no way I could have been at work on Saturday. LoL Also glad I don't have the aquarium on Sunday.

With that, I'm off.